The broadband services market has experienced tremendous worldwide growth in recent years and continues to grow. In telecommunications, broadband refers to a signaling method that includes or handles a relatively wide range of signal frequencies. Those signals can be carried over a communication path via a static connection made with some type of cable, e.g., optical fiber or electrical conductor, or via some form of energy without the use of cables, e.g., radio frequency (RF), infrared light, laser light, fiberless visible light, and acoustic energy. Cable television (CATV), cable internet, digital subscriber lines (DSL), isolated subscriber digital networks (ISDN), and local area networks (LAN) are among the cabled, or “wired”, broadband services now provided.
CATV transmits digital and analog television signals to televisions via optical fiber cables, coaxial cables, or a combination thereof in a hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network. Cable internet utilizes the CATV infrastructure to transmit various forms of digital data over a wide area network (WAN) of interconnected computers via optical fibers and coaxial cables. And, just as cable internet is layered on top of the existing CATV network infrastructure, DSL and ISDN utilize the existing telephone network infrastructure to transmit various forms of digital data over a WAN via copper telephone wires. Unlike WANs, LANs are networks of interconnected computers covering a small physical area, such as an office building. Various forms of digital data can be transmitted over LANs using optical fibers, coaxial cables, or copper twisted pair cables.
At the heart of the infrastructure that makes up each of those forms of broadband service, service providers often utilize a central control device called a headend. Headends serve as trunks, or nodes, in spanning tree networks that receive, process, and distribute signals into the service provider's network. In larger networks, e.g., WANs, headends may connect to distribution systems or other headends, which may further connect to other distributions systems or headends. Accordingly, each headend may include hundreds of cable connectors for making the numerous network connections required.
The increased number of network connections at the headend leads to significant difficulties when connecting and disconnecting cables at the headend. When cables are individually connected to the headend, each cable connector typically includes some type of fastening means, such as a threaded collar, to maintain a connection with the headend. Not only must each connection be disconnected and reconnected if, for example, the module to which they are connected needs to be replaced, the density with which those connections are arranged on the headend makes it difficult to access the fastening means on each connector, such as with a wrench.
In response to the difficulties encountered when individually connecting and disconnecting cables at the headend, high-density multi-port cable connectors, or gang connectors, have been developed to allow a large number of connections to be simultaneously made and broken using a single connector housing. The cable connections are maintained with the headend using only a few fastening means, such as two jack screws, on the gang connector housing in lieu of using fastening means on each of the individual cables. The individual cables, however, maintain their connection with the gang connector housing with fastening means, such as retention clips, that are not accessible while the gang connector housing is connected to the headend. Accordingly, none of those gang connectors allows individual cables to be connected or disconnected without disconnecting the entire gang connector housing when a single cable requires maintenance. Instead, all of the cables must be disconnected with the gang connector to access a single cable, which results in the disruption of service to all of the other cables in the gang connector that must also be disconnected.
Accordingly, there is a need for a device of and method for a gang connector that allows a large number of cables to be connected or disconnected to a headend at the same time while simultaneously allowing the cables to be connected and disconnected individually without disconnecting the entire gang connector.